'And she's been reading some of the words,' Masklin agreed. He couldn't help noticing that this fact interested the Baroness.

'And that is all there is to it?' said the Count.

'Er,' said Masklin. He'd been worrying about this himself. He had an obscure feeling that it couldn't be as easy as that, but this was no time to worry about details that could be sorted out later. What was it the Abbot had said? The impor­tant thing about being a leader was not so much being right or wrong as being certain. Being right helped, of course.

Well, I went and looked in the lorry nest, I mean the garage, this morning,' he said. 'You can see inside them if you climb up. There's levers and wheels and things, but I suppose we can find out what they do.' He took a deep breath. 'It can't be very difficult, otherwise humans wouldn't be able to do it.' The nomes had to concede this.

'Most intriguing,' said the Count. 'May I ask what it is you require from us now?' 'People,' said Masklin simply. 'As many as you can spare. Especially the ones you can't spare.

And they'll need to be fed.' The Baroness glanced at the Count. He nodded, so she nodded.

'I'd just like to ask the young gel,' she said, 'whether she feels all right. With this reading, I mean.' 'I can only do some words,' said Grimma quickly. 'Like Left and Right and Bicycle.' 'And you haven't experienced any feelings of pressure in the head?' said the Baroness carefully.

'Not really, ma'am.' 'Hmm. That's extremely interesting,' said the Baroness, staring fixedly at Gurder.

The new Abbot was sitting down now. he began.

Masklin groaned inwardly. He'd thought it would be difficult, learning to drive, learning how a lorry worked, learning to read, but they were, well, just tasks. You could see all the difficulties before you started. If you worked at them for long enough, then you were bound to succeed. He'd been right. The difficult thing was going to be all the people.

There turned out to be twenty-eight.

'Not enough,' said Grimma.

'It's a start,' said Masklin. 'I think there will be more by and by. They all need to be taught to read. Not well, but enough. And then five of the best of them must be taught how to teach people to read.' 'How did you work that out?' said Grimma.

'The Thing told me,' said Masklin. 'It's some­thing called critical path analysis. It means there's always something you should have done first. For example, if you want to build a house you need to know how to make bricks, and before you can make bricks you need to know what kind of clay to use. And so on.' "What's clay?' 'Don't know.' 'What're bricks?' 'Not sure.' Well, what's a house?' she demanded.

'Haven't quite worked it out,' said Masklin. 'But anyway, it's all very important. Critical path analysis. And there's something else called prog­ress chasing.' 'What's that?' 'I think it means shouting at people, "Why hav­en't you done it yet?"' Masklin looked down at his feet. 'I think we can get Granny Morkie to do that,' he said. 'I don't reckon she will be interested in learning to read, but she knows how to shout.' 'What about me?' 'I want you to learn to read even more.' Why?' 'Because we need to learn how to think,' said Masklin.

'I know how to think!' 'Dunno,' said Masklin. 'I mean, yes, you do, but there's some things we can't think because we don't know the words. Like the Store nomes. They don't even know what the wind and rain are really like!' 'I know, and I tried to tell the Baroness about snow and-' Masklin nodded. 'There you are, then. They don't know, and they don't even know they don't know. What is it that we don't know? We ought to read everything that we can. Gurder doesn't like it. He says only the Stationeri should read. But the F trouble is, they don't try to understand things.' Gurder had been furious.

'Reading,' he'd said. 'Every stupid nome coming up here and wearing all the printing out with looking at it! Why don't you give away all our skills while you're about it? Why don't we teach everyone to write, eh?' 'We can do that later,' said Masklin mildly.

'What!' 'It isn't so important, you see.' Gurder thumped the wall. 'Why in the name of Arnold Bros (est. 1905) didn't you ask my per-'mission first?' Would you have given it?' 'No!' 'That's why, you see,' said Masklin.

When I said I'd help you I didn't expect this!' shouted Gurder.

'Nor did I!' snapped Masklin.

The new Abbot paused.

'What do you mean?' he said.

'I thought you'd help,' said Masklin, simply.

Gurder sagged. 'All right, all right,' he said. 'You know I can't forbid it now, not in front of everyone. Do whatever is necessary. Take what­ever people you must.' 'Good,' said Masklin, 'when can you start?' 'Me? But-' 'You said yourself that you're the best reader.' Well, yes, of course, this is the case, but-' 'Good.' They grew used to that word, later. Masklin developed a way of saying it that indicated that everything was all sorted out, and there was no point in saying anything more.

Gurder waved his hands wildly. What do you want me to do?' he said. 'How many books are there?' said Masklin. 'Hundreds! Thousands!' 'Do you know what they're all about?' Gurder looked at him blankly. 'Do you know what you're saying?' he said.

'No. But I want to find out.' They're about everything! You'd never believe it! They're full of words even I don't under­stand!' 'Can you find a book which tells you how to understand words you don't understand?' said Masklin. This is critical path analysis, he thought. Gosh, I'm doing it without thinking.

Gurder hesitated. 'It's an intriguing thought,' he said.

'I want to find out everything about lorries, and electric, and food,' said Masklin. 'And then I want you to find a book about, about...' Well?' Masklin looked desperate. 'Is there a book that tells you how nomes can drive a lorry built for humans?' he said.

'Don't you know?' 'Not... exactly. I was sort of hoping we could work it out as we went along.' 'But you said all we needed to do was learn The High Way Code!' 'Ye-ss,' said Masklin uncertainly, 'and it says you have to know The High Way Code before you can drive. But somehow I get the feeling that it might not be as simple as that.' 'Bargains Galore preserve us!' 'I hope so,' said Masklin. 'I really do.' And then it was time to put it all to the test. It was cold in the lorry nest, and stank of all. It was also a long way to the ground if they fell off the girder. Masklin tried not to look down. There was a lorry below them. It looked much bigger indoors. Huge,. red and terrible in the gloom.

'This is about far enough,' he said. We're right over the sticking-out bit where the driver site.' The cab,' said Angalo.

Right. The cab.' Angalo had been a surprise. He'd turned up in the Stationery Department, breathing heavily, his face red, and demanding to be taught to read.

So he could learn about lorries. They fascinated him.

'But your father objects to the whole idea,' Masklin had said.

'That doesn't matter,' said Angalo shortly. 'It's all right for you, you've been there! I want to see all those things, I want to go Outside, I want to know if it's real!' He hadn't been very good at reading, but he'd tried until his brain hurt when the Stationeri found him some books with lorries on the front.

Now he probably knew more about them than any other nome. Which wasn't a lot, Masklin had to admit.

He listened to Angalo muttering to himself as he struggled into the straps.

'Gear,' he said. 'Shift. Steering Wheel. Wipers. Auto Transmission. Breaker Break Good Bud­dy. Smoky. Double Egg And Chips And Beans. Yorkiebar. Truckers.' He looked up and smiled thinly at Masklin. 'Ready,' he said.

'Now remember,' said Masklin, 'they don't always leave the windows open, so if they're closed, one pull on the rope and we'll pull you back up, okay?' 'Ten-four.' What?' 'It's Lorry driver for "yes",' explained Angalo. 'Oh. Fine. Now, when you're in, find somewhere to hide so you can watch the driver-' 'Yes, yes. You explained it all before,' said Angalo impatiently.